The topic relating to the county's plan for a water-producing solution was mentioned at Monday's Madison County Commission meeting by District 5 Commissioner Phil Riddick, who said there have been meetings with Huntsville Utilities to discuss "long-range plans of the water department first for finances and secondly for long-term water supply."

But talk about the county's water woes isn't anything new. The Madison County Water Department provides water services mostly through treated groundwater from the area's three water supply wells whereas Huntsville Utilities has access to the Tennessee River. And with Madison County's growth, producing enough water to meet its own needs is becoming a growing concern.

"Our sources are kind of starting to be scarce," Riddick said. "If we need an additional 4 million gallons a day, that is hard to get from the ground.

"If Madison County continues to grow, we are not going to have near enough water in the county and we are going to have to find another source for it," he said. "And this seems like a way to do it."

Riddick noted there had been proposals from an outside source to purchase the water department along with talks in previous years about a merger between the county's water department and Huntsville Utilities. The county, however, came to the conclusion that the easiest way to solve its scarcity problem was to possibly buy water from Huntsville Utilities.

"We came to an agreement on both sides to solve the problem," he said. "And now we are working on figuring out how much capacity ... how much water volume we need to take and then we will negotiate price per gallon.

"But that is not as big an issue as long term how much water we are going to need," Riddick said.

As of now, Madison County purchases water from Huntsville Utilities as needed. Riddick said the county has "pretty much" met its capacity with the water system and in peak seasons it buys water from Huntsville Utilities because "we reach our limit in the summer."

And although there are no set dates for an official agreement, Riddick would rather the contract happen sooner than later, especially now that Huntsville Utilities is in the midst of designing a new water treatment plant.

"They need to know what capacity to build into the plant," he said. "So, they are going forward if we have an agreement or not.

"After they have built and then we come to them and say we need all this water, the price will be higher and/or won't have availability of it," Riddick said.